As you know, Orange company providing serviced in the telecom industry has begun exclusive discussions with “Ucom” with regard to the sale of the shares of “Orange Armenia”. “Aravot” talked to economist Vahagn Khachatryan regarding the reasons of “Orange” leaving Armenia and the business environment in Armenia.
The economist believes that such processes always happen, but this is not the problem. “Actually, it is a very simple, understandable and economically explainable phenomenon, because the economy is not headed by the desires of separate people, it has its inner logic of development, and within the internal circles of this logic, developments or changes occur in the economy. Now, the Republic of Armenia is not an attractive country for investments, and doing a business in the Republic of Armenia has become a very serious challenge.
This is associated with several factors: firstly, the existing system of the state governance, where the business is estimated not by business activities but the personal relationships, where the judicial system is not independent, where the corruption in state structures reaches high scales, and where the law is applied selectively rather than the same for everybody. This is a very important factor for any country, and the investments or the businesses always like when there are predictable laws, and when there is a governance in the framework of a logic. However, all of this is missing in nowadays Armenia.”
As Vahagn Khachatryan said, this is also associated with the actual predictable situation and the future of Armenia’s economic development, which does not promise anything good. He considers it very logical that the number of businesses leaving Armenia is growing. “This is not a new phenomenon, it was seen 5 years ago, it was seen 10 years ago. This is what it should be, it is not that statements were made, projects are written or comments are made to say, look, this company came, invested this much money here, now look what will be expected. Look at the example of “Nairit” plant, look at the example of “Vanadzor-Khimprom” chemical plant, look at what promises were given over 15 years. These plants were reopened 3 times, were closed 2-3 times, as a result we have what we have. Plus the last one, the price hike for infrastructure in the last 5 years, specifically the electricity and gas prices. If earlier doing business in Armenia was beneficial in this regard, and we had competitive advantages over other countries, the infrastructures were more accessible in terms of the prices, now we have lost this advantage.”
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The economist believes that the issue of establishing more favorable conditions for the foreign investors in the business environment is within the political field. A political decision should be made. According to him, it is necessary to change the logic of the development, give freedom to the economy, and fight widespread against corruption. “Business likes peaceful and tranquil conditions. Today and tomorrow should be predictable. In our country, neither today nor tomorrow is predictable because the government representatives may wake up and have entirely other plans in their minds and try to turn them into reality. For example, the Constitution or the EaEU membership is the proof of it.”
AMI CHICHAKYAN,
“Aravot” daily
